The chief executive of crisis-hit haulage company Stobart faces contempt
proceedings over witness statements he made during a six-year battle with a
“whistleblower”.

A judge on Thursday ruled that a case could be heard through the civil courts against both Andrew Tinkler, Stobart’s chief executive, and its legal director, Trevor Howarth, regarding statements made during the course of a long-running dispute with Peter Elliott.

Mr Elliott worked until 2007 as an aviation advisor for WA Developments International, which acquired Eddie Stobart in 2004 before selling it in 2007. WA Developments is still owned by Mr Tinkler.

Mr Elliott was sentenced in June 2009 to three months in prison for breaking the terms of an injunction taken out against him by the company.

In the latest twist to six years of litigation, Mr Elliott applied to the High Court for permission to bring contempt proceedings against Mr Tinkler and Mr Howarth. A judge on Thursday gave permission for proceedings to continue in relation to 7 out of the 59 allegations made by Mr Elliott.

Mr Tinkler and Mr Howarth, who plan to appeal the ruling, said: “We are confident in the judicial process in which we both expect in the fullness of time to be exonerated.”